Ok, so the newly re-elected President
says he wants to take on climate change: full stop, the XL Pipeline construction. The idea of bitumen from friendly Canada appeals to those concerned with energy security, but it exacts a heavy environmental toll. Combusting fuels from bitumen emits twice as much greenhouse gas per barrel than Saudi crude because it requires so much energy to turn the stuff into something burnable. Natural gas is used to melt and separate it from the sand to which it is bound, then it is chemically altered to become hydrocarbon liquid that can be further refined into fuels or piped south as "dilbit" or diluted bitumen. The international Energy Agency suggests tar sands production should not exceed 3.3 million barrels a day if the world is to reduce catastrophic global warming. Building the XL pipeline will stimulate production well beyond that limit to 5 million or more barrels a day. Carbon burning power plants produce ten times more carbon dioxide emissions than Alberta's tar sands. Nevertheless, power plant emission are declining and new plants are now subject to CO₂ emission regulation by the EPA. It would be relatively easy to administratively extend the emission rules to existing plants too. Canada's Association of Oil Producers notes the CO₂ pollution from oil sands is up 32% since 2007. Should we care if Canadians destroy Alberta's boreal forests supplying our dependence on fossil fuels? The President has apparently answered in the affirmative in his second inaugural address. Now, Mr. President about that pipeline...do you walk the walk?
